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Water Changes Everything
The same ingredients. A completely different dough.
How much water you add—and when you add it—can transform bread. Discover the techniques bakers use to manipulate moisture for softer crumb, stronger dough and better texture.
WAIT... WE'RE COOKING THE FLOUR FIRST?
Meet tangzhong—a surprisingly simple technique for making exceptionally soft bread.
Before the dough is mixed, a small portion of the recipe's flour and liquid is gently cooked together until it thickens into a smooth paste. That paste is called tangzhong.
Heating the flour changes its starches so they can absorb and retain more moisture. Once the tangzhong is added to the dough, it helps create bread that's soft, tender and slower to dry out.
It's especially useful for milk bread, dinner rolls and other pillowy loaves.
A few minutes at the stove can change the texture of the entire loaf.
SAME IDEA. DIFFERENT METHOD.
Tangzhong isn't the only way bakers put hot flour to work.
With yudane, boiling liquid is poured directly over a portion of the flour instead of cooking the two together in a saucepan. The mixture is stirred into a thick dough, then later incorporated into the bread dough.
Like tangzhong, the heat changes how the starch handles moisture, helping create bread with a soft, tender texture and good keeping quality.
The destination is similar. The route is different.
Tangzhong cooks the flour. Yudane scalds it.
WAIT... DON'T ADD ALL THE WATER YET?
Sometimes the trick to making a wetter dough is to start with a drier one.
A technique called bassinage, or double hydration, holds back part of the recipe's water at the beginning. The dough is mixed and begins developing structure first; then the remaining water is gradually worked in.
Why bother? Very wet dough can be difficult to develop and handle. Adding some of the water later can make it easier to build strength before asking the dough to absorb the rest.
The technique is especially useful for high-hydration breads where bakers want an airy, open crumb.
Same amount of water. Completely different timing.
SAME FLOUR. MORE WATER. DIFFERENT BREAD.
Hydration is simply the amount of water in a dough compared with the flour.
A lower-hydration dough is generally firmer and easier to shape. More water can create a softer dough with the potential for a more open, irregular crumb.
But water isn't working alone—flour, fermentation and technique all affect the finished bread.
The goal isn't more water. It's the right amount for the bread you want.